#idea tariff

[ahordeofwasps]

The fixed tarrif for my energy bills is coming to an end in a month or so, and the different flexible tariff options my provider wants to put me on look a hell of a lot like gambling

How much will I be charged for energy in the upcoming months? Who knows! The provider says the market will decide and shows me the current spring rates, without any regard on how pricey things will get once winter hits

#I have no clue how to navigate british utilities #I just want things to be transparent #I don't want to make bets on my energy bill #and idk if it's worth trying to find another fixed tariff as I have no idea if I'll still be in the UK in a year

[daycourtofficial]

Amber eyes, looking into mine

Summary: Eris finds something in his study that triggers him into a frozen state of panic. Who better suited to pulling Eris from his past than his future?

Author’s note: I wrote this in under an hour so please be nice and if there are any typos, no there aren’t 💕 Also technically this is part of my gingerfucker series, but can be read alone and she doesn’t make an appearance, it’s all Eris and the baby okay byeee

TW: panic attack, mentions of being whipped and being burnt

Word count: ~1k

A trade agreement sat on his desk, one that predates his tenure as high lord. Eris had found the document stuffed away in a drawer, abandoning what he was searching for as soon as he recognized it.

His father’s large, obnoxious signature at the bottom, the ridiculously high tariffs on imported goods. He could hear the whip in his ears, feeling his body tense with memory.

It was all too much. He had spoken with his father about the deal, wanting to give incentives for traders to come into Autumn rather than deterrents. Beron had laughed at him, telling him that everything anyone needs can be found in Autumn.

The night hadn’t ended there.

Beron had whipped him for having such a ridiculous idea in front of the other courtiers.

“No son of mine will appear so idiotic before others,” he had said, his voice ringing in Eris’s ears. 

Eris was seated in his chair in his study, but his mind was elsewhere. Down deep, deep in the dungeons of the Forest House, a trek he made many nights, his blood dripping through the house as he limped back to his own chambers.

Chubby hands grip the fabric of his trousers, a body too small traveling up his legs, climbing for what they love most in this world. Little feet find their footing on his thighs, hands leaning against his torso to support their weight.

Amber eyes look at him, searching for praise at the impossible task they just completed. 

His eyes.

What his eyes used to look like, before Beron burnt the joy out of them.

Eris is frozen in place, caught in a spiral of hatred and loathing by his son. His beautiful, wonderfully funny son, who looks at him with the love and adoration his mother looks at him with.

If his son knew all that he had done to prevent Beton’s ire, would his eyes still look for Eris in every room? Would his eyes still fill with tears, his lungs exhaling every breath at bedtime, unable to sleep without seeing his father one last time?

The spitting image of him, his mother finding an old portrait of himself at this age, his son a direct image of the portrait. Was this how he looked when Beron began his tirade of cruelty against his family? Did soft coos of a babe turn into wails at any contact with Beron?

All he had ever known was the flame, the flame within himself that refused to be extinguished, and the flames his father tormented him with for centuries.

He feels those flames on his skin, his own flame desperate to fight it. He feels the heat licking up his forearms, he feels it cascading down his back in waves, searching for every inch of unclaimed skin. He clenches his fists, desperate to bring himself back to reality. Instead, his breathing becomes more ragged, his jaw clenching.

He can smell the flesh burning off of him, feel his stomach churning, his throat filling with bile at the smell, so strong he could taste it.

Tiny fingers grip into his hair, yanking lightly, trying to find balance. The feeling jolts him back, back from the past, back from a place that doesn’t exist anymore. 

The babe stands in his lap, toes gripping his trousers as he tries to learn how to use them. A warmth so unnatural from something so young radiates off of his son. A tear splashes onto the little foot, which the babe immediately burns off. 

Giggles fill the room at his show of his powers and Eris is finally able to move again as he wraps his arms around the young princeling, so unaware of how the world can burn.

He holds him in a tight embrace, squishing his face into the tiny neck, breathing him in. He gives himself five seconds, clutching the clothes covering the babe’s chest.

Five.

He breathes in deeply, his chest heaving with sobs that escape his mouth.

Four.

It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair. It had never been fair. Nothing was fair.

Three.

It took hours to kill Beron, centuries of scheming, and his presence was still felt throughout the court, throughout him-

He feels something cold and wet on his neck, tiny hands still gripping his hair, but his son is slobbering across his neck, his cheek, the movement tickling Eris’s neck. He laughs as he realizes that his son is mimicking how they make him laugh by blowing raspberries into his neck, his cheeks, his stomach.

He delicately pulls the face from his neck, leaning his forehead against his firstborn’s forehead. His eyes are wide with wonder. Everything is new to him and the worst thing he’s experienced is dropping his favorite toy in a mud puddle.

He looks at his father, not sure what to make of him, until Eris slowly smiles at him, his eyes lightening with fondness, catching a bit of the spark from his son’s eyes.

And the baby in his arms smiles back, grabbing Eris’s nose in excitement as he babbles noncoherent sounds. Eris stretches his legs out, sinking into his chair a bit, letting his back relax into the chair. Eris responds to the babbling, occasional hums and responses to whatever he was trying to convey to his father. 

Someday, the words would come. They would flow freely, spilling from his mouth in anger, in sadness, in disbelief. They would come more easily, small things setting off his memories and not allowing him to think of anything until they left him. He would share the burden of his memories.

Someday, the words would come. But not today. Today the incoherent babbling was enough.

#eris vanserra #eris vanserra x y/n #eris vanserra x you #eris vanserra x reader #eris vanserra fanfic #acotar fanfiction #eris x y/n #eris x you #eris x reader

[justalittlesolarpunk]

hi! i love your blog :D do you have any advice to implement low waste and solarpunk aspects into everyday life with a tight budget? keep doing what you do!

Hi!

Thanks for asking - I’ve had this question before and it’s definitely a real problem. Organic, plastic free food is expensive. So is handmade durable clothing, and train fares these days. It can feel like only the rich can be solarpunks, which is pretty counterintuitive given its anticapitalist ideology. But! I’m here to tell you there’s lots you can do to bring solarpunk into your life in a cost-effective way.

To start with, lots of solarpunk spaces are free or cheap. Get a library card and you can borrow as many books and DVDs and other resources as you like. Look up to see if there’s a library of things in your neighbourhood, and join a buy nothing or stuff for free group online. Download TooGoodToGo, which lets you access food from local cafes and restaurants which would otherwise go to waste. See if there’s a repair cafe that operates near you - I managed to get a pair of trousers mended at one of these for free, and I had been thinking I would need to pay a tailor (which is fine if you can afford it! Skilled labour deserves fair wages!). In some places plant-based food is cheaper, so when it is, choose it. But in others it will cost more than animal products so you have to decide on a case by case basis whether saving money or a particular diet is more important to you.

There’s lots else you can do for minimal spending or that actually saves you money. Walking to work or school avoids the expenditure in the petrol for a drive or a bus fare. If you’re within walking distance and able to do so, I’d recommend it. Joining your local chapter of Extinction Rebellion, Friends of The Earth, Greenpeace, The A22 network or any other active climate group in your area is almost always free and just involves a small weekly time commitment. This will introduce you to activists and inform you about protests and public meetings you can attend.

If you have the time in your week and the physical ability, which I acknowledge many people don’t, you can also join some sort of volunteer group looking after a nature reserve or tending a community garden (which might also give you access to free or discounted food). Learning to forage is also a good skill as that really is free food!

Depending on where you are, a green electricity tariff *can* also be less expensive. If this is the case and you have control over your provider, it’s worth switching to it. Buying books and clothes secondhand will also be better for the environment and your bank balance. Teaching yourself about the climate and the natural world with podcasts, YouTube, online free articles and other resources is also free and the knowledge will help you keep solarpunk at the front of your mind. Read good news stories online whenever you can, to remind you that good things are happening already.

If you’re employed, you can also try to influence green policy at your workplace or in your trade union. If you’re at school or university, joining (or setting up!) the environmental society and/or lobbying for change at the SU are both good ideas and shouldn’t necessarily cost you anything. If you can - and I know this is inaccessible for a big swathe of the population - put a very small amount of money aside whenever possible, because the more you save the more you can afford to buy better products, donate to causes, help out the needy in your community, travel in a greener way, and other more expensive choices. It’s all about that dual power.

Hope this helps get you started!

#solarpunk #hopepunk #environmentalism #cottagepunk #social justice #community #optimism #bright future #climate justice #tidalpunk #lunarpunk #budgeting

[fantasyinallforms]

It's finally time! I present to you my latest Bagginshield fic, created in collaboration with the @thorinsspringforge! I highly encourage everyone to check out the other amazing Thorin-centric works that just dropped from the collection! The link for that is HERE.

I want to thank @lordoftherazzles for making this amazing banner for me, as well as my lovely artist @rajirani, who chose my fic out of the lineup and who made the stunning art you will find both in the fic and the banner. You have no idea how excited I am to share this with you all, and I hope you enjoy! 🥰

The Burden Of Choice (Bagginshield, 56k, E)

Summary:

Thorin Oakenshield is the crown prince of one of the strongest kingdoms in Middle Earth, but in the last year, the kingdom has struggled to keep its place among the ruling powers of the land. Erebor was held under vicious siege for over a year as the dragon Smaug terrorised the land and all but wiped out the nearby human settlement of Dale. Eventually, the dwarves were victorious, but it was at the cost of many of their own, including Thorin’s father and youngest brother. They were left with a charred and decimated land. Since then, no crops could be persuaded to grow in the dragon's desolation. With tariffs from the elves climbing higher every year, King Thror is left with little choice but to secure an alliance with another race through the bonds of marriage. Thorin plans to make a run for it the night before he is forced to marry a foreign Lord. In his attempt, he runs right into Bilbo, doing the same thing.

#bagginshield #the hobbit #bilbo baggins #thorin oakenshield #thilbo #rajirani #THorin Spring Forge #TSF2024 #tsf24

[gatheringbones]

[“Perhaps it’s because we’ve been trained since the earliest days of capitalism to see the poor as idle and unmotivated. The world’s first capitalists faced a problem that titans of industry still face today: how to get the masses to file into their mills and slaughterhouses to work for as little pay as the law and market allow.

Hunger was the capitalists’ solution to the labor question. “The poor know little of the motives which stimulate the higher ranks to action—pride, honour, and ambition. In general it is only hunger which can spur and goad them on to labour.” So wrote the English doctor and clergyman Joseph Townsend in his 1786 treatise, A Dissertation on the Poor Laws, By a Well-Wisher of Mankind, asserting a position that would become common sense, then common law, throughout the early modern period. The “unremitted pressure” of hunger, Townsend continued, offered “the most natural motive to industry.”

Once you got the poor into factories, you needed laws to protect your property and law men to arrest trespassers and court systems to prosecute them and prisons to hold them. If you were going to fashion an economic system that required the movement of labor, capital, and products around the globe, you needed a system of tariffs and policies to govern the flow of trade, not to mention a standing army to uphold national sovereignty. Big money required big government. But big government could also hand out bread. Realizing this, early capitalists decried the corrosive effects of government aid long before it was extended to the so-called able-bodied poor. In 1704, the English writer Daniel Defoe published a pamphlet arguing that the poor would not work for wages if they were given alms. This argument was repeated over and again by leading thinkers, including Thomas Malthus in his famous 1798 treatise, An Essay on the Principle of Population.

Early converts to capitalism saw poor aid not merely as a burden or as bad policy but as an existential threat, something that could sever the reliance of workers on owners. Fast-forward to the modern era, and you still hear the same neurotic arguments. The idea is to protect one kind of dependency, that of the worker on the company, by debasing another, that of citizens on the state.”]

matthew desmond, from poverty: by america, 2023

#matthew desmond #currently reading #history stuff

[racefortheironthrone]

Why do economists need to shut up about mercantilism, as you alluded to in your post about Louis XIV's chief ministers?

In part due to their supposed intellectual descent from Adam Smith and the other classical economists, contemporary economists are pretty uniformly hostile to mercantilism, seeing it as a wrong-headed political economy that held back human progress until it was replaced by that best of all ideas: capitalism.

As a student of economic history and the history of political economy, I find that economists generally have a pretty poor understanding of what mercantilists actually believed and what economic policies they actually supported. In reality, a lot of the things that economists see as key advances in the creation of capitalism - the invention of the joint-stock company, the creation of financial markets, etc. - were all accomplishments of mercantiism.

Rather than the crude stereotype of mercantilists as a bunch of monetary weirdos who thought the secret to prosperity was the hoarding of precious metals, mercantilists were actually lazer-focused on economic development. The whole business about trying to achieve a positive balance of trade and financial liquidity and restraining wages was all a means to an end of economic development. Trade surpluses could be invested in manufacturing and shipping, gold reserves played an important role in deepening capital pools and thus increasing levels of investment at lower interest rates that could support larger-scale and more capital intensive enterprises, and so forth.

Indeed, the arch-sin of mercantilism in the eyes of classical and contemporary economists, their interference in free trade through tariffs, monopolies, and other interventions, was all directed at the overriding economic goal of climbing the value-added ladder.

Thus, England (and later Britain) put a tariff on foreign textiles and an export tax on raw wool and forbade the emigration of skilled workers (while supporting the immigration of skilled workers to England) and other mercantilist policies to move up from being exporters of raw wool (which meant that most of the profits from the higher value-added part of the industry went to Burgundy) to being exporters of cheap wool cloth to being exporters of more advanced textiles. Hell, even Adam Smith saw the logic of the Navigation Acts!

And this is what brings me to the most devastating critique of the standard economist narrative about mercantilism: the majority of the countries that successfully industrialized did so using mercantilist principles rather than laissez-faire principles:

When England became the first industrial economy, it did so under strict protectionist policies and only converted to free trade once it had gained enough of a technological and economic advantage over its competitors that it didn't need protectionism any more.

When the United States industrialized in the 19th century and transformed itself into the largest economy in the world, it did so from behind high tariff walls.

When Germany made itself the leading industrial power on the Continent, it did so by rejecting English free trade economics and having the state invest heavily in coal, steel, and railroads. Free trade was only for within the Zollverein, not with the outside world.

And as Dani Rodrik, Ha-Joon Chang, and others have pointed out, you see the same thing with Japan, South Korea, China...everywhere you look, you see protectionism as the means of achieving economic development, and then free trade only working for already-developed economies.

#political economy #mercantilism #economic development #early modern state-building #early modern period #laissez-faire #classical liberalism #classical economics #economics #economic history

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Underground Empire: Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman's must-read account of "How America Weaponized the World Economy."

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

At the end of Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman's new book Underground Empire, they cite the work of John Lewis Gaddis, "preeminent historian of the Cold War," who dubbed that perilous period "The Long Peace":

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250840554/undergroundempire

Despite several harrowing near-misses, neither of the two hair-trigger, nuclear-tipped arsenals were ever loosed. When the Cold War ended, the world breathed a sigh of relief and set about refashioning itself, braiding together economic and social interdependencies that were supposed to make future war unthinkable. Nations that depend on one another couldn't afford to go to war, because they couldn't hurt the other without hurting themselves.

The standard account of the Cold War's "Long Peace" is that the game theorists who invented Mutually Assured Destruction set up a game where "the only way to win was not to play" (to quote the Matthew Broderick documentary War Games). The interdependency strategy of the post-Cold War, neoliberal, "flat" world was built on the same fundamentals: make war more costly than peace, victory worse than the status quo, and war would be over – if we wanted it.

But Gaddis has a different idea. Any effect Mutually Assured Destruction had on keeping fingers from pushing the buttons was downstream of a much more important factor: independence. For the most part, the US and the USSR had nonintersecting spheres of influence. Each of these spheres was self-sufficient. That meant that they didn't compete with one another for the use of the same resource or territory, and neither could put the other in check by seizing some asset they both relied on. The exceptions to this – proxy wars in Latin America and Southeast Asia – were the disastrous exceptions that proved the rule.

But the past forty years rejected this theory. From Thomas Friedman's "World Is Flat" to Fukyama's "End of History," the modern road to peace is paved with networks whose nodes can be found in every country. These networks – shipping routes, money-clearing systems, supply chains, the internet itself – weave together nearly every nation on Earth into a single web of interdependencies that make war impossible.

War, you may have noticed, has become very, very possible. Even countries with their own McDonald's franchises are willing to take up arms against one another.

That's where Farrell and Newman's book comes in. The two political scientists tell the story of how these global networks were built through accidents of history, mostly by American corporations and/or the American state. The web was built by accident, but the spider at its center was always the USA.

At various junctures since the Cold War, American presidents, spies and military leaders have noticed this web and tugged at it. A tariff here, a sanction there, then an embargo. The NSA turns the internet into a surveillance grid and a weapon of war. The SWIFT system is turned into a way to project American political goals around the world – first by blocking transactions for things the US government disfavors, then to cut off access for people who do business with people who do things that the US wants stopped.

Networks tend to centralization, to hubs. These central points are efficient, but (as we learned during the covid lockdown) brittle. One factory fails and an entire category of goods can no longer be made – anywhere. When it comes to global resiliency, these bottlenecks are are a bug; but when it comes to US foreign policy, these chokepoints are a feature.

Farrell and Newman skillfully weave a tale of individuals, powers, circumstances and forces, showing how the rise and rise of world-is-flat rah-rah globalism created a series of irresistable opportunities for "weaponized interdependence." Some players of the game wield these weapons like a scalpel; others (like Trump) use them like a club.

This is a chronicle of the dawning realization – among US power-players and their foreign adversaries, particularly in China – that the US lured its trading partners into entrusting it with financial clearing, IP enforcement, fiber landings, and other chokepoints, on the grounds that American wouldn't risk the wealth these systems generated by turning them into engines of coercion.

But then, of course, that's exactly what America did, from the War on Terror to economic sanctions on Iran, from seizing Argentinian reserves to freezing Russia's cash. Sometimes, the US did this for reasons that I sympathize with, other times, for reasons I am aghast at. But they did it, and did it, and did it.

America's adversaries (and frenemies, like the EU) have tried to build alternative "underground empires" to offset the risk of having their interdependencies weaponized (or to escape from an ongoing situation). But therein lies a conundrum: world-is-flat-ism has ended the age of indepedence. Countries really do need each other – for energy, materials, and finished goods. Independence is a long way off.

To create new interdependency networks, it's not enough for countries to agree that they don't trust America as neutral maintainer of their strategic chokepoints. They also have to agree to trust one of their own to operate those chokepoints. Lots of countries have come to mistrust US dollar-clearing and the SWIFT system – but few are willing to allow, say, China to run an alternative system that carries out settlements in Renminbi. The EU might be able to suck in some "friendly" countries for a Euro-clearing system, but would China trust them? How about Iran?

Farrell and Newman make a good case that US's position at the center of the web is a historical accident, and possibly a one-off, contingent on the ascendant post-Cold War ideology that said that markets and the interdependencies they create would neutralize the threat of handing a rival nation that much power.

Which leaves us in a world of interdependency in conflict. If Gaddis is right and the Long Peace was the result of independence, then this bodes very ill. The only thing worse than a world where no one can depend on anyone is a world where we must depend on entities that are hostile to us, and vice-versa. That way lies a widening gyre of conflict that felt eerily palpable as world events unfolded while I read this excellent, incisive book.

Political science, done right, has the power to reframe your whole understanding of events around you. Farrell and Newman set out a compelling thesis, defend it well, and tell a fascinating tale. And when they finish, they leave you with a way to make sense of things that seem senseless and terrible. This may not make those things less terrible, but at least they're comprehensible.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#the-other-swifties

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

#pluralistic #henry farrell #undergound empire #chokepoints #swift #weaponized interdependency #books #reviews #gift guide #political science #new cold war #surveillance #ip #soft power #abraham newman

[colormepurplex2]

Make You Mine | Purple Silk

↳  Alpha Jungkook x Omega f.Reader ⤜ Enemies/Lovers ⤜ Rating: MA 🔞 ⤜ WC: 3,544 ⚠️  Angst, Omega presenting, mostly plot and setting the scene

Next Chapter⇾ ◅ Back to chapter list  

"How many times are you going to bring up the eastern territory lines? My answer is still no." Roland, your pack leader, crosses his muscle-banded arms across his chest. "We have enough trouble from the Jeons without trying to shift the claim lines again. I don't care what that musty old map shows, we keep to this side of the river and that's that."

You clamp your mouth shut, fighting the urge to argue again. Are all alpha's this ignorant or just the one leading your pack? You snuff out that thought before it can be read on your face. It's not fair that the Jeon family keeps pushing their claim further onto your family's land. Over the last five years, they've taken almost 100 acres along the river and Roland doesn't seem to give a shit. It makes you hot under the collar.

"Sir, can we move on to the import tariffs from the north? They're increasing again, the fields haven't been producing the way they should so we're relying more on those goods," your father, a well-to-do beta and Rolands second, speaks up from where he's seated across from you at the large oak conference table. It makes your stomach sour how they can move on so quickly from such an important topic. Sweat pops up along your brow, you scrub it away and sneer at the shine on the back of your hand. The leather jacket you're wearing slides quickly down your arms as you shrug out of it.

"Aye, so the reports say." Roland nods then unwinds his large arms to gesture to the man seated beside your father. "Lou, what's going on in the fields?"

Louis, beta and second to your father, shuffles some papers on the table in front of him. "It's not good, Ro. We think the soils are not turning over the way they should. Not enough water coming up through the ground well. It could take us another season, maybe two, before we can get it back to where we need it to produce for the family." By family, he means your pack. It's not really a family like some would think. It's not a set of parents and their children. It's more like several of those kinds of family units joined together. You're not all blood-related, nor even by marriage for that matter. Family, as you know it, is a choice.

You're part of Roland's family because your great-great-grandfather joined Roland's great grandfather's pack. The only reason you'd ever leave the family is if you were cast out or if by some miracle you find a soulmate. That idea makes you snort to yourself. Yeah, right. Already approaching your late twenties, you're starting to consider maybe you're just a really fucked up anomaly when it comes to designations. Most of your kind present just into their early twenties. It's unheard of for someone your age to not know where they fit in the hierarchy. Even if you were to present tomorrow, not everyone gets a soulmate, you have to be extra special for that. No, you're pretty sure that's off the table for you. Speaking of table...

"-this time next year, if we're lucky it won't be th-" Lou is speaking again, explaining to Roland the best process to roll over the vegetable fields.

The smack of your palm hitting the polished wood surface of the table cuts him off. You're not normally this hostile, but this is just an itch you can't seem to scratch. All eyes go to you, narrowing. You know you're being a bit hot-headed, but honestly, why can't they just fucking listen to you? You ask as much. "Why can't you see the obvious fix to this issue?" You lurch out of your chair, the back of your knees knocking it so hard it almost topples. "That land, the land you refuse to acknowledge as being taken from us, is fertile. We grew plenty there before the Jeon's snatched it up. It's close enough to the river that the irrigation possibilities alone would make it worth it. Stop being such a...a-...being such a..." You swallow hard, throat suddenly parched. Black spots pop up in your vision, the maps go out of focus before you on the table. "If you wo-would j-jus-st," the words slur from your mouth.

Why is it so hot in here? You tug at the collar of your shirt, willing some air past the fabric to cool your heated skin. A hand clamps hard on your shoulder, a blurred face looms before yours. You can faintly hear your name being called, sounding miles away. Words, drifting in and out like they're caught in a swirling wind, come just close enough that you can snatch a few here and there.

Okay?

Towel

Ice

Presenting

No. This can't be happening right now. You shake your head sharply from side to side to dispel the absurdity, but it only proves to worsen the ache settling behind your eyes. There isn't enough oxygen in the room, your lungs don't want to fully expand. You're hyperventilating. "Hot," you manage to croak out, staggering back from the hand on your shoulder. The last thing you want is to be touched right now. Everything burns. Somehow you've ended up on your knees, clutching your head in your hands.

"Sweetie," the voice of your mother is like aloe against the pain. "Shh," she coos softly.

"Mom," you whimper, dropping your hands and trying to lift your head to seek her out.

She's kneeling beside you, her graying hair spilling over her shoulder as she leans forward. "It's okay, sweetie, it'll pass soon." You reach out trembling hands, needing her comfort. "Not right now, we have to wait for it to pass," she murmurs brokenly. Part of her aches with you, knowing what you're experiencing. Presenting for a female is different than it is for a male. Biology, always giving someone the short end of the stick. "Just lay down, like that, good." Her constant praise and gentle words keep you grounded.

You slump down onto the cool tile floor of the conference room. Your shirt clings to you, sweat-soaked and uncomfortable. "Hurts," you whine. Everything hurts. You roll onto your side, curling in on yourself. Everything in your abdomen cramps up, a powerful force that makes you whimper low in your throat.

"Here, the ice and towel," it's the voice of your dad. He sounds so concerned, you want to go to him, tell him it's okay. Another wave of nausea steals your breath before you can even begin to form words of comfort.

A sudden coolness is pressed to your brow. The smallest bit of relief in the inferno that is consuming you. "Why is it taking so long?" The voice of your pack alpha is brisk, borderline brutish, and laced with...something, something new, something you've never heard before.

"Ro, sometimes these things take time. There's never been someone presenting as late as she is, it could just be her body working harder to adjust." Again, your mother's words soothe you. Your mother is what many would call a den mother of sorts. She takes care of everyone. Though she isn't an alpha, she sure as hell can act like it sometimes, commanding those around her with just a look. Even Roland won't challenge your mother most of the time. Usually, it's the pack omega's place to be in charge like that. However, after Roland's wife and soulmate, your family's most recent pack omega, passed away a few years ago, your mother fell into the role until another alpha, and their soulmate, take Roland's place.

"What's that smell?" Louis sniffs the air, wrinkling his nose. "It's way too sweet."

A low rumble sounds from Roland, making you flinch. The burning starts to ease, cramps dissipate slowly. Your muscles and arms continue to tremble as you stretch out onto your back. The lights overhead are bright, you have to blink several times before you can keep your eyes open and assess your situation.

"Mom?" You test your tongue against your teeth, prodding at your now slightly elongated canines. "What happened?"

Your mom's beautiful face comes into view, blocking out the blinding lights overhead. "Oh! My sweet, beautiful daughter." She places a cool palm against your cheek and thumbs away a tear you didn't know was there. "It finally happened, sweetie, you presented." There are tears glistening in her eyes, a brilliant smile forms on her lips.

"I did?" You ask hesitantly. She helps you sit up, careful that you don't move too quickly and get dizzy.

"You did, princess," your father's voice is rough, full of emotion. He hasn't called you princess since you were a kid.

There are odd smells in the air. You scrub at your nose with the end of your shirtsleeve. The smells make your nose burn, like walking into a candle shop during the holidays, it's overwhelming.

"What does...?" You trail off, not sure how to ask. Shouldn't you know? You'd think your body would be able to tell you what you are. But, right now, your body just seems confused. There is too much going on around you. The smells, the bright lights, the subtle shift in the air that makes the fine hair along your arms stand up.

Roland steps into your view. He looks so much bigger now for some reason. It must be because you're sitting on the floor at his feet. His dark eyes stare into yours and you know he's measuring your worth. For a moment you think he might hit you, his fists clench at his sides, you hear the faint creak of leather as his shoulders bunch beneath his vest. You're waiting for him to speak, maybe offer something, a crumb of explanation but all he does is glance at your father and shake his head before swiftly exiting the conference room.

You're confused even more now. You look to your mother and open your mouth to ask but she just holds up a hand to silence you. "Roland was just trying to see whether or not you could be...well, whether or not...Mari..." You blanch, eyes going wide at the mention of Roland's late soulmate. Why in the hell would he think you have anything to do with Mari? Your mother quickly continues, "It's just that, well, sweetie, you've presented as omega."

You think you might pass out.

🌘🌗🌕🌓🌒

"Mom, can we not make a big deal about this?" You grumble as she grabs another giant, fluffy ball gown from the rack on the wall.

She turns a cool eye on you. "This is a right of passage," she doesn't snap at you, but you can tell her patients with your increasing distress over everything is wearing thin. "I don't care how old you are. Even if you were fifty, I'd still be dressing you in silk and parading you around the flaming estate for all to see. Now, I don't want to hear another word of protest about it."

It's been a week since you presented as...omega. You still cringe thinking about it. It's not that you don't want to be an omega, you're just not sure why everyone keeps treating you like you're made of glass now. You know Omegas are rare, even more rare than an Alpha. But, it's bad enough you feel like every alpha in your family wrinkles their nose at you, saying you smell kind of funny. They don't smell so great themselves. You just wish they would treat you the same as before.

Your dad explained that because omegas are the only designation an alpha can be truly mated with, we're talking soulmate level bonding, all the alphas in your family have been trying to determine whether your scent matches theirs. It doesn't. The way you smell puts them on edge, their alpha knows you're an omega and they also know that either your true mate hasn't been born yet (maybe never will) or they're part of another family. That last possibility doesn't make anyone happy.

You puff out your cheeks and follow behind your mom as she grabs a few more gowns. She's reserved the entire shop for the whole day, just so you could spend several hours being poked and prodded by the seamstress, to find the perfect gown for your designation celebration.

"I'm sorry I'm being a bit of a mood-killer, mom. It's all just so much already. Everyone is treating me differently and none of my friends seem to want anything to do with me anymore."

Her eyes soften, full of knowing. "Aww, sweetie, I know it's not easy. You just have to understand, being omega means things are going to be different. Granted, I don't know from personal experience, but you know how close Mari and I were. You'd have thought we were weened on the same teet," she chuckles brightly, remembering her best friend, "she confided in me just how demanding it was to be omega. Now, I'm not trying to scare you or anything, but you need to understand that nothing is going to be the same for you moving forward. People are going to look at you differently, they might be wary of you at first, but eventually, that wariness turns into reverence and respect. You're part of the hierarchy now, but a rare part that many could go their entire lives without encountering. So, of course, they're going to treat you a little differently at first. It's lucky that our family has experience with omegas, Mari is a fresh memory for us all."

You get it, you really do, but that doesn't make it any easier. Mari always seemed happy, even after she fell ill, she was quick with a smile and comforting words for any who needed it. "Thanks, mom." You smile but it doesn't quite reach your eyes. Perhaps, all it will take is some time. Time for everyone to adjust.

"Come on, let's get you to try these gowns on. Jules said she'll need at least a week for any alterations and we don't have much more time than that before the full moon. Lots of work to do!" You can't help but smile as your mother continues to chatter about the preparations for your designation celebration. You'd endure this a thousand times over just to see her bright eyes and smile. It's not like your parents will get this experience again. You're their only child, quite uncommon, but your mom had a rough time getting pregnant and an even tougher time being pregnant. No, you can't keep being a stick in the mud over this party, your mom and dad deserve better than that.

The rest of the day passes in a blur of satins and silks. The gown you and your mother finally decide on is exquisite and you're honestly, if a bit surprisingly, looking forward to wearing it. The plunging neckline accentuates your full breast, the tapered waist gives a nice defining line to the swell of your hips. It's rich, violet silk that shifts to darker tones of indigo under the lights. It's floor length with a slit that hits you mid-thigh on one side. The back of the gown is one large panel of intricate, dainty lace with iridescent moon opal accents sewn in the shape of a giant crescent moon in the center of the back. The shiny stones match the moon opal necklace and earrings your mother passed down to you on your eighteenth birthday. They were gifted to her by her mother when she presented. The silver heels that peek out from beneath the hem complete the look perfectly. Your hair is pinned perfectly with thick curling tendrils cascading just so.

The full moon arrives before you know it, the preparations for your party continued right up until just an hour ago when your mother shooed you away upstairs to begin getting ready. Roland is hosting your party, his lavish and extensive home the apex of your pack's land. The sprawling mansion has been in the family for many generations, each new alpha adding his own flair. A man of few words and fewer niceties, Roland begrudgingly allowed your mother to redecorate the bottom floor of his home for tonight. There are beautiful strands of garland wrapping around banisters, beautiful and exotic rugs covering the white marble floors, and flickering candles blaze on every available surface. It's to be a grand affair, one your family will be known for, for years to come.

"You look beautiful," your father states softly. The tender look in his eye makes your heart ache. There is pride shining there, pride in seeing his little girl all grown up, despite being well into your twenties. That's a fact you've tried to remind him of the last few days. Each time he just waves a hand in the air, dismissively, and proclaims you'll never be too old to be his little girl.

There is a swift knock at the door that draws your attention. Before you can move to open it, the door swings open to reveal Roland. He's dressed in a smart suit, charcoal gray with subtle black pinstripes and a white collared shirt. "The Jeons. Really?"

"Now, Ro, let's not get heated over this," your dad begins, stepping around you.

The alpha huffs a low growl. "You expect me to not get heated over them being invited into my house?"

"Dad, what is he talking about? Ro," you turn to your pack leader, "what are you talking about?"

Roland's eyes drift from your father to you. "Apparently, it seems your parents have decided to invite everyone to your designation party. Everyone."

Your eyes flash, heat rises under your skin. "I'm sorry," you turn to your father, hands going onto your hips, "you did what?!"

Your father puffs up his chest, meeting both your and Roland's challenges glares. "She's presented as omega, Roland. You know as well as I do, that means everyone gets invited. Bad blood and feuds are put to bed for the night and we all grit our teeth, plaster on a smile, and celebrate."

You want nothing more than to scream. The last thing you need tonight is seeing any of those smug, land stealing assholes. Five years ago the youngest Jeon presented as alpha and took over their family. He's the one that pushed their borders, he's the one that took land from your family...and now he's going to be showing up at your party. That scream demands to be released. "I need a minute," you grate out between your clenched teeth.

Your dad at least has the graces to give you an apologetic look. "Okay, honey, but don't be too long. Guests are already arriving downstairs. I'll send your mother up in a few."

Your stomach is in knots. You knew for an omegas designation celebration that it's customary to invite all packs. It's a night for rejoicing, a night for true celebration that should put even the worst enemies into good spirits around one another. Your designation is so rare it can bridge the gap between centuries-long blood feuds. If the Jeons are coming then that surely means the Kims, Jungs, Mins, and Parks will be in attendance, too. They're not all of the same family, but they're so close they might as well merge ties. Then, on the other hand, you know the Bartons will be here, too. If there is one centuries-old blood feud that is famous above the rest, it's between the Parks and the Bartons. You're not even really sure why, something about a stolen pack omega some four hundred years ago. Longer than anyone can really remember to get the story right.

The night air is cool as you push open the double doors leading out onto the balcony of your borrowed room. Roland's house is big enough to house many guests when the need arises. This particular room is fairly secluded, overlooking the small rose garden off of the east wing. If you crane your neck and lean out over the railing you can see the lights from the large patio and pool deck. The back doors are wide open, the sound of music faintly carrying to your ears. The patio and giant pergola are draped in twinkling fairy lights. You see bodies moving around, mingling and wonder if any of the figures you see are people you've sworn as your enemy.

You can smell the rose garden below, fragrant even this late in the season. The wind picks up, pulling your hair over your shoulder, the strands tickling along the side of your neck. You take a deep breath to calm yourself. As you fill your lungs with the cool night air you freeze. On the undercurrent of the breath you just inhaled, there is something...something strange. A smell you've never smelled before. You take another large lungful of air, catching the faint scent again. You can't place it. It's heady and intoxicating. You want to stand here and pull in large breaths until you go fuzzy in the head. Whatever it is, it smells delicious.

Before you can take in another tantalizing lungful the door to your room opens. Your mom's light voice breaks through your hazy fog, "it's time, sweetie, let's present you to the world."

Next Chapter⇾ ◅ Back to chapter list  

◅ Back to Master List ©️       2022-02-14   ColorMePurplex2

#bts #bts fanfic #bts smut #bts angst #bts jungkook #bts non idol au #bts abo #jungkook abo #alpha jungkook #omega reader #abo smut #bts knotting #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #bts enemies to lovers #alpha jungkook x omega reader #jungkook smut #bangtanwritershq

[fuckingliterallyanythingelse]

I kinda have a thing for city design and I've been rolling this idea around in my head for a while, and i think it's come to this; 240 lots ranging from 2500-3600 sq meters, all residential, with 16 3600 sq meter commercial complexes scattered throughout, all within a sq km. The idea is pretty simple: one lot can hold a family and a small farm, or one high density housing structure. High density housing allows for staffing of commercial complexes and housing for remote workers and others who don't want to tend a yard/garden. The one family plots don't even need to be farms, the land can be developed elsewise, as a trade shop or other small business. Furthermore, a full half acre of land is a solid amount of farmland, either in a traditional farm, as an orchard, or even as a ranch or bee farm. Having 16 total commercial complexes scattered across this residential complex means that more people would be able to set up small businesses outside of their houses as well, and allow all residents to have easy access to stores of all kinds. The middle of this lot would likely be dedicated to 1-4 superstores, with a ring of smaller stores around. With none of this needing parking due to the proximity of houses, you could maximize commercial real estate, allowing for maximal convenience, having everything you could need right at hand.

And here's the thing; This needs a socialist underpinning, allow everyone a place to live, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because living on land develops the land, and living in a complex will inevitably contribute to the economy in other ways. Rent is not charged because it is not necessary, living there and actively participating in the economy is good enough. And, in order to really get the economy stimulated, everyone can be afforded a monthly budget, free of charge, that they can then spend on everyone else's goods, which then get taxed via sales or income tax, feeding back into the system. Add tariffs and service fees for mail, waste disposal, and utilites, and now your government is able to generate revenue not only to feed the socialist programs, but to maintain infrastructure as well.

#solarpunk #socialism #anti capitalism #communism #anarchism #anarchy #city design

[adhdahri]

Please help me and my family make it through next month.

[18 Feb 2023]

Hello everyone, I am Nell, a Malaysian trans woman living with my retired mother. Things were going well for a few months before this, but at the end of December 2022 the owner of our previous residence evicted us, obligating us to move to a different place that happens to be in poorer shape and with higher utility tariffs thanks to being a terrace house instead of an apartment.

On top of that, January 2023 ended with my employer deciding not to offer me a full time contract, sending me back to the job hunt.

As a result, things are fairly tense now and any help with covering bills and daily expenses until I can get my next job and paycheck would be much appreciated.

To make sure we have the bills under control, it would help to get around RM300, or 65 USD by the end of February. After that, over the next 30 days or so, it would be a good idea to gradually accumulate RM1800 or 400 USD to get us through March.

If you can help out even a little, any contributions are very much appreciated and can be directed to my Payp*l at [email protected]. Otherwise, simply reblogging and otherwise spreading this post is a way to help as well.

Thank you for your consideration.

Receipts for bills that will recur next month under the cut:

#trans #trans women #twoc #signal boost #mutual aid

[useless19]

Luigi and food, as he continues his visits, does food he enjoys gets easier or better for him to get from the castle? Or always a point of experimentation with the chefs? Does bowser ever try it?

I like to think that, over time, Luigi's meals get more edible and a little more consistently tasty. It'll never beat the stuff he makes in his own kitchen, but, equally, his homemade meals will never be better than the food he remembers from his childhood. It's all fighting familiarity and nostalgia.

There's a patch where Luigi realises that import taxes are a thing and worries about how much he's setting back Bowser financially because he likes having Mushroom Kingdom-grown tomatoes (Bowser finds the idea hilarious when Luigi brings it up). But that at least incentivises Luigi to start figuring out a bit more actual royal work and chat with the right people to draft some trade tariffs. Bowser's ties to the Mushroom Kingdom only ever benefits from Luigi wanting familiar foods.

The chefs will never stop their experimentation, it's half the joy of food science, and Luigi's the only one polite enough to put up with it on an ongoing basis. When Bowser's feeling particularly indulgent, he'll let Luigi offer him some of the weirder stuff, but even though he likes to eat, he can be pretty picky (a lifetime of getting what he wants didn't do him any favours in that department).

#days #ask #bowuigi

[probablyasocialecologist]

The problem, of course, is that neither the UNFCCC nor its member states control the means of production that would have to be knocked out and rolled out, brought down and scaled up, rechanneled and repurposed for the one overarching aim of maintaining the planet in a habitable state: they are in private hands or in the hands of state-owned enterprises that behave just like any other capital. The latter segment could be redeployed with some ease. The former would first have to be brought under public control—not necessarily through direct ownership but unavoidably through instruments that would constrain the power of capitalists to dispose of their properties freely, be they taxes or tariffs, decrees or prohibitions, liquidations or procurements, discounts or subsidies—in whatever conceivable mix, an all-encompassing meddling with the economy. Precisely for this reason, discussions about climate mitigation often have something impotent and futile about them. In the real world, capitalists do whatever they want in relation to the science. For that to change, they would have to be reined in like a herd of bulls that must be prevented from running amok, but few dare to announce this loudly and fewer still have any concrete ideas for how to go about it.

Andreas Malm, Planning the Planet: Geoengineering Our Way Out of and Back into a Planned Economy

#geoengineering #climate change #planning

[simply-ivanka]

Mainstream Media's "Bloodbath"!

Speaking to an Ohio crowd about predatory Chinese trade practices, Trump said:

Let me tell you something: To China, if you're listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal. Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now ... you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us, no. We're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that's gonna be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars.

His point is dead simple: Unless Trump is elected to stop it, American carmakers are going to suffer as a result of Chinese practices and Biden's failures.

Yet, as predictably as the sun rising in the east, Democrats and their Leftmedia propagandists seized on the word "bloodbath" to pretend that, if Trump loses the November election, he'll incite violence. It's part of a concerted strategy to keep January 6 at the forefront, even though the only real bloodshed that day was that of Ashley Babbitt at the hands of a Capitol Police officer.

"It's clear this guy wants another January 6," tweeted Joe Biden's social media people with a strategically truncated video of Trump's comments.

"He's even predicting a 'bloodbath,'" asserted Nancy Pelosi. "What does that mean? He's going to exact a bloodbath?"

"He was talking about a bloodbath," huffed MSBNC's Joe Scarborough. "Sometimes a bloodbath means a bloodbath."

"Trump Says Some Migrants Are 'Not People' and Predicts a 'Blood Bath' if He Loses," headlined The New York Times.

An NBC News headline blared, "Trump says there will be a 'bloodbath' if he loses the election."

Leftmedia talkingheads fretted over the return of 1930s German fascism and genocide. NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss said, "That's how fascism and totalitarianism and — in Germany's case — the Holocaust came to Germany, which had been a country where there were big institutions of democracy until, as you well know, the early 1930s." (Germany was primarily a monarchy until 1918, but whatever.)

Likewise, Politico's Michael Kruse wrote a lengthy article about how Trump's humor is essentially the same as Adolf Hitler: "Trump is not Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini. But they share a rhetorical style, experts say."

You get the idea.

"The word 'bloodbath' is used in common parlance all the time," noted veteran journalist Brit Hume, "and it doesn't necessarily refer to an actual shedding of blood. It refers to some major upheaval, damage being done, and the rest of it."

And you know something? Before Trump used the word, journalists understood that. They also used the word. A lot.

It's almost like their indignation now is phony.

Leftists and even some on the Right who hate Donald Trump with every fiber of their being really don't like the way Trump says things. Frankly, he is often unnecessarily uncouth, angry, visceral, and so forth. He behaves like, well, a Democrat.

Yet the things he says rightly and intentionally resonate with average Americans who are justifiably outraged at the rigged game Washington has foisted on us. Trump knows exactly what he's saying and why, and it works. He connects.

Trump posted his rebuttal on Truth Social: "The Fake News Media, and their Democrat Partners in the destruction of our Nation, pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry."

"Missing context" is usually the "fact-checker" catch-all, but they're more than happy to let this one go. In fact, The Washington Post even offered "analysis" yesterday that the "broader context" is that "Trump has already warned of 'riots,' 'violence in the streets' and 'death & destruction' if he's wronged."

You want context? Those are things Democrat constituents actually do in America's cities.

"Many MAGA Republicans are saying Trump's 'bloodbath' comment should be put in context," the Biden-Harris HQ X account posted. "So we put it in context."

That context included not only January 6 but the BIG lie about Trump's "very fine people" comment about Charlottesville — the lie that supposedly motivated Biden to run in the first place.

As usual, political analyst David Harsanyi cuts to the chase: "You don't need to be a fan of Donald Trump to concede that this weekend's meltdown over the word 'bloodbath' was cynical and dishonest." Indeed, these contrived frenzies serve a dual purpose — to drive media ratings and to motivate suburban women to vote against the meanie with the red hat.

Yes, Trump was using hyperbole. "Politicians always catastrophize events," Harsanyi observed. Democrats are doing it now to rile up their own base.

On a final note, in case you think we were just throwing shade at Trump for behaving like a Democrat, here's a two-minute compilation of Democrats using violent language to express their contempt for a guy who forces them to look in the mirror.

#trump #ivanka #trump 2024 #america #president trump #repost #america first #americans first #donald trump #democrats

[smokeybrandreviews]

God Mode

This is the last thing i'm going to post about episode five of Ahsoka, i promise. It just kind of f*cked my whole perception of the entire franchise, all the way up. Never mind the fact that the Jedi Council was legit grooming child soldiers to send them off to the front lines of a war over f*cking tariff disputes, or the fact that Maul got absolutely bodied by a whole ass teenager, there is a fully realized Anakin Skywalker just hanging out in the World Between Worlds. I'm not talking Clone Wars Anakin who got quadriplegic'd by old man Ben, or the hulking, cyborg, menace of an attack dog for the Galactic Empire, but a full potential Anakin Skywalker. An Anakin who has mastered the Force to the point he has transcended even the ability to project as a Force Ghost. An Ankin that somehow found his way into The World Between Worlds with no maps or clues. An Anakin fully at peace with who is, who he was, and who he can be. The truest version of The Chosen One legend, given form.

The quiet feats he demonstrated during that little training session with Ahsoka, were ridiculous. This wasn't a Force Ghost because he physically fought Ahsoka with a perfectly mastered Form Five. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was considered one of, if not the best, Jedi Duelist in history, and even that from couldn't master Form Five. This wasn't a memory because he referenced the sh*t Luke said to him during his duel, and inevitable defeat, on the Death Star II. “I won't fight you”, Ahsoka said. “I've heard that before”, Anankin replied. This was Grand Master Anakin Skywalker and he taught Ahsoka a real lesson, forcing her evolution into Ahsoka the goddamn White. During this process, he flitted between himself and his Vader form, like it was nothing. Light and Dark at the drop of a hat but, when Vader finally clashed with Ahsoka, it was Anakin's face he wore. I'm talking full power Darth Vader, without the cybernetic handicaps. Sh*t was glorious to see. He was vicious, brutal, but controlled. The anger was there but it was focused. This was Vader perfected but used for a purpose. This Vader was truly the Sith Lord he was under that armor, but lacked the self-loathing. This Vader was more a tool used to show Ahsoka that she, too, can fall. That it was a choice. That she could overcome even the greatest evil, ever, in her mind; Her fallen master, Darth Vader. But those are just glimpses of Anakin's power. This man literally reshaped The World Between Worlds on a whim.

Anakin motherf*cking Skywalker literally warped an entire reality, just to train his Padawan one last time. He took this adult Ahsoka, and reverted her back to a teenage form. He used her memories to, not only reshape the landscape, but draw in actual people she remembered as tangible representations from that time. F*cking Rex was in the Clone Wars flashback, man, in full Clone Trooper armor. Anakin did that through sheer Force of will. Do you have any idea how f*cking powerful in the Force you have to be to do something like that? Just getting to the World Between Worlds is a feat but Anakin can shape it like clay. Not even the Father, The Daughter, and The Son could do that sh*t and Anakin was shown to be stronger than all of them when he was still just a Jedi Knight. The only other entity that i think can come close to this level of power is Abeloth from Legends and she was a f*cking problem that Grand Master Luke Skywalker barely solved. I mean, this version of Anakin Skywalker physically pulled Ahsoka into The World Between Worlds right before she crashed into that sea. That, alone, is a big ass "The f*ck?"

What does Force Entity Anakin Skywalker mean for the rest of the franchise? This thing is bound by nothing, limited by nothing. He exists at the crossroads of all time, all reality. He can shape this core existance into anything he desires and carries a wisdom that only someone who has mastered the Force fully, can even begin to understand. In canon, that's just The Father, i think. In legends, that's just Luke, if I'm not mistaken. Like, he's stronger than the f*cking Whills, man. But, as broken as Anakin has become, that presents a problem for everything which comes after this episode. The sequels, specifically.

Grand Master Anakin Skywalker is the caretaker for the Star Wars version of a Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He is some sort of extra-physical representation of true Force balance. He can physically pull anyone he wants into this Room of Spirit and Time to train them. He literally gifted Ahsoka all the knowledge he possessed, leveling up her Force abilities like they were nothing, and she was already technically stronger than Obi-Wan before that point. Even Palpatine understood that Force Potential alone, was only a part of true strength. That man spent years of his life, studying under one of the most pragmatic Sith to ever live. This version of Anakin has access to so much more of that knowledge, plus his near infinite potential with the Force. That fleeting thought, on it's own, it's just staggering. If Anakin can do that much, if he is some limitless Force God now, how does he let Poppa Paps manipulate his grandson into being just another tool? How the f*ck does Anakin Skywalker, the man who sent the entire galaxy into a murderous, imperial, dark age over the death of his wife, let his own, personal, abuser, do the exact same sh*t to his grandson? How does he not intervene with Luke during his exile? How do these narratives even work anymore now that Grand Master Anakin Skywalker, Keeper of The World Between Worlds, exists?

#Anakin Skywalker #Darth Vader #Star Wars #Star Wars: Ahsoka #Ahsoka #Lucasfilm

[warsofasoiaf]

Could I ask you about Viserys I? In a transcript for a deleted scene of HOTD, Viserys is looking at a statue of Jaehaerys I and lamenting that he is somehow expected to do better than him (since his reign followed his). I read somewhere that medieval kings were remembered by either wars fought or by what they built. Viserys' reign was almost entirely peaceful (except for the Stepstones conflicts). What do you think Viserys could have built (in terms of infrastructure, fortifications, etc.) during his reign to improve the kingdom?

Given the Stepstones conflict, Viserys might have done well building out a larger harbor in King's Landing, with multiple wharves and a solid lighthouse, to improve the facilities for the Royal Fleet and improve trade (and thus tariffs and harbor fees). He could have build a place of great worship (remember, the Great Sept of Baelor doesn't exist yet). He could have invested more into completing Barth's vision for King's Landing - Barth had ideas on sewers and other sanitation that were very on the nose. While the winters aren't as devastating as they are up north, having some buildings with old Roman-style hypocausts might help, particularly the poor to help warm themselves during the winter. He might have built a better defensive network of watchtowers in the south along the Dornish border to discourage border raids, perhaps coupled with offers of trade to help resolve the Dornish issue favorably to Westeros - I doubt he'd actually be able to secure a marriage and treaty, but improving relations while showing strength is typically what you have to do in medieval statecraft.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#viserys i targaryen

[m-jelly]

I wouldn't change my life for anything in the world.

@kenkopanda-art

Pairing: Levi x Reader

Genre and tags: Modern AU, time skips, adoption, fluff, romance, Levi being a dad, pregnancy, money troubles at first, becoming a CEO, cute.

Concept: As Levi is finishing university at 22, he gets a call about his 12-year-old cousin, Mikasa, losing both her parents and might be moved into the fostering system. Levi doesn't have much money due to being in uni, but he doesn't want Mikasa to be separated from her friends and she's family. Levi looks after her and raises her until she's old enough to go to university. During the years of financial struggle, Levi eventually works for Erwin and becomes CEO of the business. When she's ready to go, Levi meets you and starts happily dating you but is nervous about letting you know about Mikasa. You click with Mikasa and love her to pieces. You help her with lady and romance issues during uni. She becomes a wonderful big sister to yours and Levi's baby as well.

Note: This was a wonderful idea that was born from @ladycheesington amazing mind. We chatted and developed a few points together. I hope she loves what I've done with the idea <3 This post will contain sections of important parts that happen in both Levi's and Mikasa's lives.

In the beginning.

Levi carried Mikasa's bags into his very small apartment. He put the bags down in his room. "I uh, I'm sorry it's so small. You can have my room and I'll sleep on the sofa."

Mikasa looked around the small living room before walking into the bedroom. "Mm."

"I made the bed and it's all clean. I don't have a girlfriend, so it'll just be me and you." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry it's not as nice as your parent's place. We'll get a better place, I promise. It will take a few years, but I'll do my best."

He watched Mikasa walk around the room. She opened the balcony door and walked out to see a busy street. She wiggled the railing a bit and turned to look at Levi. She walked back in and sat on the bed and bounced a bit.

Levi gulped hard as he felt nervous. "I-If it's not okay, I can try and get you something better. You'll have to give me a few months to save up the money."

Levi put her suitcase on the bed, then moved the rest of her bags into the room and saw she'd started unpacking her things. He felt a little relieved that she was settling in.

He grabbed a present and handed it over to her. "It's a welcome gift."

Mikasa unwrapped it and opened the box to see a cheap mobile phone inside. She stared at it and turned it on. She stared at the background picture set as her parents.

Levi ruffled his hair as his heart throbbed in his chest, he had no clue if he was doing the right thing. "I know it's not the latest thing, but I made sure to get you a good tariff. I set your phone up for you as well. I hope you don't mind."

Mikasa welled up as she looked at the phone. She rubbed her tears away and sniffed a little.

Levi went white. "Sh...I mean...I'm sorry."

Mikasa got up and hugged Levi. "Thank you."

Levi hugged her back. "I know this isn't the best and I don't have much money, but I'll do everything I can to get you what you need. There's a great school here and Armin goes to it. You'll be with one od your friends at school and out of school."

"Thank you."

He gulped. "Do you want pizza?"

"Sure."

He led her to the living room and ordered the pizza over the house phone. He sat with her and watched some TV as they ate together. The first night was terrible. He heard Mikasa crying. He comforted her because he understood her pain. The crying got less over the days, but then she had nightmares about her parents being killed. He stayed with her and barely slept.

Levi was trying to run a business with his uni friend Erwin, but it was only starting off and costing them both a lot. Levi had to get two other jobs to pay his way and to support Mikasa. He bought her all she needed for school and sacrificed things for himself. Mikasa ate well and slept the right amount of hours, but Levi barely ate a thing and only slept three hours each day.

Levi came home exhausted to see his apartment was spotless and Mikasa was gripping the mop. "Mikasa?"

She looked around and blushed. "I thought I would clean. You've been working so much and you give me a lot. I wanted to do something for you." She put the mop away and hurried to the kitchen. "I umm cooked dinner. You haven't been eating much and it worries me. You'll all I have left."

Levi smiled at Mikasa and walked over to her. He hugged her before wiping her tears away. "Thank you. I'll take care of myself more, okay?"

"Promise."

He hummed a laugh. "I promise."

She grabbed the dinner and put it on the coffee table because there was no room for a dining table. "I followed the notebook recipe you have."

Levi smiled. "That's my mother's." He made two cups of tea and sat with her on the floor. "Thank you for the meal."

She smiled with pride. "Enjoy!"

Being 16

Mikasa walked through the city on her way home and kept thinking about how hard Levi was working. She knew he was making more money now, but it wasn't enough to move out of the apartment. She knew very well he was sacrificing things for himself so she could have things. She had a newer phone and a laptop, but it meant Levi couldn't get a car. The apartment had been updated with nicer things for Mikasa, but Levi had to buy a lot of the things secondhand for himself.

She stopped when she saw a sign asking for a part-timer. She slipped into the bakery and talked to them. She proved she was sixteen and talked about her school hours and they nicely worked it around her school. She worked there as often as she could and got a bit of money for her work.

Mikasa wasn't sure what to do with her money. She knew it wasn't much, but knew it could help a little. She didn't think she could help with the bills, but there was a chance she could possibly buy some food. She changed her mind about getting food because if she did, Levi would know she was working and would be upset.

Levi wanted Mikasa to focus on school and he would deal with money and troubles like that. So, she wanted to do something so he knew how much she appreciated him taking her in, giving her everything she needed and more. She knew Levi was a saint and she saw him as a hero.

She came across something she knew would show her appreciation.

A teacup.

She saved up all her money and walked into the shop with pride. She handed the money over that she worked really hard to earn. She paid a bit extra for it to be wrapped up nicely. She was so nervous about giving it to Levi that she kept it for a few days hidden in her room.

Until Levi found it while cleaing.

Levi frowned as he swept under the bed. He frowned at the wrapped-up box and pulled it out. "Mikasa?" He stood up. "Mikasa!"

Mikasa stopped cleaning the living room and joined Levi. "Yes?"

He showed her the box. "You got something to tell me?"

She blushed. "It um...it's not what you think."

He walked closer. "You are far too young for this kind of thing."

She frowned a little. "Thing? What thing?"

Levi blushed a little. "Oh...nothing."

She smiled and pointed. "It's for you."

He sat down on her bed and carefully pulled the wrapping off. He opened the box to reveal a teacup inside. He picked it up and fought tears. "Where did you get the money for this?"

She walked over. "I've been working in a bakery part-time. Don't worry, I haven't let it change the way I've been studying. My grades haven't changed at all. I like it there and I want to help with getting food. I was worried you'd tell me to quit because of that." She hugged herself. "I want to show you that I appreciate you. I know we don't have much money. I know you work two jobs and it used to be three. I know you restrict things for yourself and give me a lot. I wanted to give back."

Levi gripped the cup as his vision went foggy. He sniffed and wiped his tears away. He cleared his throat and smiled at Mikasa. "Thank you."

"Do I have to quit my job?"

He put his arm around his cousin and tugged her close. "No, no you can keep it. You really want to help out with the food shopping?"

"Please."

He sighed. "Alright, you can help out a little."

Business is booming

Levi had a smile on his face as he drove his new car to Mikasa's school. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when he turned up to pick her up. She was turning 17 soon and things were looking up for the Ackermans.

Levi had managed to get a big partner to sign a deal with Erwin's company. Once that happened, more people signed up and it was an avalanche of business coming in. Levi and Erwin were now earning a lot more, employing more people and were becoming well off people. Levi had kept his eye on it over the past months and as things got better, he was able to get a new car and an apartment.

He had spent the whole day moving out of the old single apartment to a new one with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room too. He knew Mikasa was going to love having her own space and being happy. He knew it'd be hard at first to accept there was money now, but now he could send her off to university with no worries.

He pulled up to her school and stood outside the car and waited. He narrowed his eyes at Eren hanging around Mikasa as they left school. He could see the little blush on Mikasa's cheeks as she laughed at Eren. "Tch, Eren. Damn mutt."

Armin spotted Levi and gasped. "Mr Ackerman? Is that car yours?"

Levi nodded. "Yeah."

Mikasa stopped walking and stared at the car and took in Levi's suit. "Levi? What's happening?"

He waited for her to walk over. "You know that deal I mention to you? The big one?"

She gasped as the realisation hit her. "You did it?"

He nodded. "Yeah, a few months ago. I didn't tell you because I wanted to make sure that it was going to go well. It has. We are representing so many people and helping out a lot of companies. Soon, almost everyone in this city will be reaching out to us to design their brands and create business models for them." He blushed. "Sorry, I'm boring you."

She shook her head. "No, no you're not. I saw your work and I knew you'd do it. So, what does this mean?"

He held her upper arms. "It means we don't have money troubles anymore. We have a car."

She looked it over. "Second hand?"

"New."

She smiled. "Really?"

He nodded. "I also have something else to show you." He opened the car door. "Hop in."

She climbed into the car and waved to her friends. "Where are we going?"

He glanced over at her. "It's a surprise."

She looked out the window and watched the city go by and noticed the nice part. "Levi?"

He pulled into a parking spot under the building and led her to the lift. He pressed a button and sighed. "Trust me."

She hummed. "Okay..."

He stepped out of the lift and waved her closer. "Come on."

She walked over to him and stopped at a door. "Levi?"

He unlocked the door and opened it. "Come on in."

She moved into the room and saw a wonderful kitchen, a living room and a dining area. "It's really nice."

He hurried ahead. "This way!" He ran to a door and opened it. "In here."

She entered the bedroom and saw a double bed and lots of places to put clothes. "Wow." Her eyes widened when she saw her things in the room. "Wait..."

Levi opened a door in the room. "There's a bathroom too."

She looked inside and saw more of her things. "Wait, wait, wait...Levi?"

He waved her closer. "Come with me."

She hurried after him. "Levi, I'm confused."

He pushed some presents towards her. "Open the small one first."

She carefully opened the wrapping, something she learned from Levi. She frowned at a little box before opening it to see a key was inside. "A key?"

Levi nodded. "Yeah, to our new apartment."

She looked up at Levi as her eyes widened. "Wait...wait...this is our place?"

"It's all ours."

She welled up. "It's ours!"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you have a bedroom?"

Levi felt his heart swell. He couldn't believe she cared more about Levi than herself. "I do. I have my own bathroom too. I'm over there through that door."

She smiled. "You have your own bedroom! No more sofa! I'm so happy!" She ran over to Levi's room and looked it over. "You deserve this, Levi. No more depriving yourself, please."

He sighed. "But you deserve a lot more."

"Levi."

He ruffled his hair and let out a long sigh. "Alright, no more depriving myself of things." He cleared his throat. "There's an issue with your job though, you're too far from the bakery but I heard there's a nice tea, herb and spice shop nearby that will hire you. The doorman said the lady who runs it is nice."

Mikasa smiled. "You're letting me work still?"

"Yeah, you like it, so go for it." He pointed to the door. "I'll get you the application papers, okay? You stay here and enjoy yourself." He pointed at a present. "Open that one."

Mikasa opened it as Levi walked away. "A new phone!?"

"Keep opening the gifts!"

He rode the lift down and walked down the road to a cute shop that looked so warm and welcoming. He slipped inside and saw everything was varnished food, there were plants everywhere, the place smelt incredible. He felt at home. He looked around and turned when her heard a sweet voice.

"Hi! Welcome!"

Levi turned around and felt his cheeks burn and his heart flutter in his chest when he locked eyes with you. He couldn't get over your cute dungarees, sweet boots and charming smile. He felt the world around him pause as you walked over.

You giggled. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, s-sorry umm...hi."

You hummed a laugh. "Hi. Can I help you?"

He cleared his throat. "Le-Levi. I'm Levi."

You shook his hand and said your name. "Lovely to meet you." You blushed and felt your heart skip a beat. "You're new here."

He nodded. "Recently moved here. I-I um..."

You smiled. "Things looking up? I know that look. I had nothing for a while too and nothing went my way." You let out a long sigh. "Took so long for this place to take off." You hummed in thought. You jumped when you realised you'd taken over the conversation. "I'm so sorry! I'm taking over the conversation."

He walked closer. "Don't be sorry, keep talking."

"Oh, I was told I talk to much..."

He shook his head. "I like listening. So, you worked hard for this place?"

You nodded. "Yeah! I umm struggled a lot in life and I ah never got much in life. I have fantastic parents, but I always had bad luck. I worked my ass off and things never went my way."

Levi felt like he'd found his soulmate. "Me too! I started a business with my friend and it was like making a fucking wall out of chocolate in the hot summer sun."

You laughed. "That's so true!"

He laughed a little before blushing. "I ah...so..."

You lightly touched under Levi's eyes making him close them. He hummed and relaxed into your touch. He opened them again and marvelled at the colour that was your eyes. He looked at every speckle in them and shine. He scanned your face and felt himself falling for you.

You blushed a little as you enjoyed Levi's handsome features. "Do...do you get much sleep?"

"No."

You walked over to your tea collection and grabbed a few. "As a welcome to the area, I have some tea for you."

He walked over to the counter. "How much?"

You handed two small tins over. "On the house." You smiled. "This one will help you sleep and this one lets you relax."

He smiled as he looked at the cute tins. "Thank you. Oh, I was told you're looking for help. My cousin is 17 and she wants to help out around here. Do you have an application?"

You leaned on the counter. "Send her here whenever."

"What about an application?"

You hummed a laugh. "She's a young lady that wants to work. You know the struggles of life and I can imagine she does. I'm all for helping out a young lady."

He nodded and held back a smile. "Great." He stumbled a little near the door. "Great..."

You nibbled your lip. "So, would you like to go out for a drink or lunch sometime?" You blushed and traced patterns on the counter. "I mean, you're new around here and I'm sure you would like a friend."

He ran over to the counter and grabbed a paper and yanked his pen out of his pocket. "I would love to. Here is my number." He cleared his throat as he stared at you. "Umm..." He grabbed his things and ran. "Bye!"

You giggled as he fell out of your shop and ran off. "So cute."

Introductions

Levi cleared his throat as he felt nervous as you both had lunch together. He'd been dating you for almost two months now and he wanted to tell you he loved you. He had told you about Mikasa being his cousin, but you didn't know he was acting like a father to her and she was living with him. Levi always went over to yours.

He reached over and held your hand. "I love you."

You squeezed Levi's hand as you blushed. "I love you too."

He lifted your hand up and kissed it. "I love you so much."

You hummed a laugh. "Everything okay?"

He shifted in his seat a little. "So, umm...about Mikasa..."

You locked eyes with Levi. "Yeah?"

"She umm...she's more than a cousin." He saw you pull back. "N-not like that! Shit, I worded that badly." He huffed. "Her parents died when she was 12 and uh I got the call when I was finishing uni. I took her in and raised her as my own. So, when I say she's more than a cousin, I mean she's like a daughter to me."

You welled up. "She lives with you?"

Levi panicked. "Ah, don't cry! I'm sorry I lied!"

You sat next to him and hugged him tightly. "You're incredible! You took her in and looked after her. It must have been so hard for her and you. Poor Mikasa." You smiled at Levi. "Did you think this would upset me?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well I kind of have a 17 year old kid who lives with me."

You kissed Levi making him blush. "I think it's wonderful. I adore Mikasa and we get in so well when she works with me." You gasped. "Are you going to officially introduce us?"

He blushed bright red. "Yes."

"So, I'm meeting your family?"

He pouted a little. "Yes."

You giggled and hugged his arm. "This is amazing." You nuzzled the crook of his neck. "Sorry, I'm just blushing so hard right now. I'm so happy."

He smiled. "Me too. I want you to be part of my family so badly." He got up and pulled you to your feet. "Come on. We'll go meet her."

You gasped and went white. "Wait! I need to get changed and get her a gift!" You shot up to your feet. "I need to make her dinner...I have so much to plan..."

Levi blushed at you being cute. He hummed a laugh. "You don't need to."

You cupped his face. "I must! I want her to like me."

"She already likes you."

You gathered your things. "But that's as a boss!"

Levi grabbed you and pulled you close. "Stop, breathe, okay? We'll go shopping together and you can cook at my place. You can see where I live and meet Mikasa when she comes home from school."

You nibbled your lip. "Okay...okay...I can do this..."

Levi followed you to the nearest food shop. "Honey, you're okay." He held your hand. "Everything is okay."

You hummed. "I gotta cook her something good. What does she like? Does she like spicy or does she hate that kind of thing? Does she eat meat or not? I love ramen and I could make some for her, but I need to know if she likes meat!"

He cupped your face. "Ramen is perfect and she likes meat."

"Okay!" You grabbed a trolly. "Let's go!"

Levi took it from you. "I'm buying and I'll push this."

Levi watched fondly as you ran around the shop grabbing things for ramen, nice drinks and a dessert. He drove you to his place and carried all the bags. He smiled as you busied yourself in his kitchen. He thought you fitted into his life just perfectly. He knew it was just two months in, but he wanted you for life.

You offered Levi a spoonful of the broth for the ramen. "Check please."

He sipped and hummed. "It's delicious."

You smiled. "Will she like it?"

"Yes."

"Great." You checked everything over and made sure the cake was cool. You started decorating and putting it together so it was a perfect strawberry and cream cake. "I think that's it."

Levi put his arm around you and kissed the side of your head. "She'll love it and you." He growled at you and started nipping and kissing your neck.

Mikasa walked in as she texted Eren on her phone. She noticed a pair of shoes that weren't hers. She looked up to see you in an apron with Levi's arm around you and him nibbling your neck. "Cute."

Levi pulled away. "Mikasa!"

You gasped and hurried over with a boba drink you made. You bowed to her. "Welcome home!" You offered her the drink. "I-I made this for you."

She took it and hummed. "Thanks. So, you two finally admitting your dating to me?"

Levi walked over. "I never told her you're like a daughter to me and you live with me. So, umm...I wanted her to meet you officially like a dad would introduce his kid to his girlfriend."

She smiled. "Cool. You're perfect for each other." She looked over the food. "Did you make all this?"

You nodded. "Yeah because I want you to like me and I thought it'd be a nice hello meal."

She hummed a laugh. "I like you though. Can I help you set up the dining table."

You welled up. "Please."

She grabbed a few things and walked with you. "So, how long have you two been dating? Has it been since we moved here?"

You nodded. "Yeah."

"That's really cool." She frowned. "Does that mean I have to sign something at work to say we're going to be related or something?"

You blushed. "Related?"

She sat down and giggled. "Well, he's not dated anyone since I came into his life. So, he's very serious about you."

"Really?"

Levi carried the food over as he blushed. "She's right."

"Wow...umm...that makes me so happy." You gasped and put together everyone's ramen. "Here you go. Enjoy everyone."

Mikasa smiled. "Thank you for the meal."

You ate together and joked around as if you were one big happy family. You slipped into their lives easily. You felt like you belonged. Mikasa was gushing to you about a lot and was treating you like her mother. Levi had his arm around you when you all sat back and just had drinks.

Mikasa helped Levi clean before turning to you. "Do you wanna play some video games with me?"

You gasped. "Please!"

Levi frowned. "What about me?"

Mikasa snorted a laugh. "You can drink your tea and read your books. Old man."

"I'm not old!"

You giggled. "Mikasa? I'm only a bit younger than Levi, by like two years."

She stared at you. "Yeah, but he's old in the mind." She hugged your arm. "We're going to my room...bye."

You and Mikasa

You and Levi had been together for over a year and Mikasa was in university. You and she were in contact a lot and you helped her a lot with her girl troubles. She was secretly dating Eren and both were deeply in love, but she knew Levi would kill Eren if he knew. So, you were her everything.

You were sitting on the sofa cuddling Levi as you looked at holiday locations for you, him and Mikasa. "I think this might be nice."

Levi kissed the top of your head. "Yeah. We'll get our own room and Mikasa can have her own."

Mikasa walked into the living room on her summer break. "Hey, mum? Can I borrow you?" She stared at you and Levi as you both stared at her in shock. "What?"

"You called her mum."

You welled up. "You see me as mum?"

Mikasa blushed hard. "Maybe...can I borrow you?"

You jumped up and hurried over. "Yes! Of course."

She cleared her throat. "We need to go out."

You nodded. "Sure. I'll grab my purse. Levi? Do you want anything?"

Levi pouted. "No...just hurry home."

"We will." You walked with Mikasa and took her to her favourite cafe. You paid for drinks and sat with her. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

She nibbled her lip. "It's about Eren."

"Okay."

She let out a long sigh. "We want to start...you know?" She shrugged a little. "And well...Levi wants me to never ever sleep with a guy. You've helped me out so much already. You're a woman and I know you and Levi have a lot of...you know."

You blushed. "You haven't heard us, have you?"

She laughed. "No, no, it's just Levi has a spring in his step and I've seen the lovebites. Your skin is glowing too."

"Great, cause I would be mortified if you'd heard us."

"Never heard you."

You relaxed. "Good. So, you want help about starting."

She nodded. "Yes...does it hurt?"

You hummed a bit. "Well, I mean...a bit? But! It'll be okay. It's all about preparation, okay?"

You talked to Mikasa and made her feel relaxed about it all. You told her how it would be and to make sure they both talked. You took her to the shop and showed her different things to help them both. You bought some for her and then went to Eren's place.

Eren spent the whole time blushing as you talked. He kept looking at your legs and chest. Mikasa and Eren were both 18, so they were young and in both their eyes you were an adult. So, you had the body of an older woman. You clapped your hands to stop both from staring at you. You talked a bit longer and both seemed very comfortable by the end.

You sighed. "Great! I'm so glad we're good, just Levi doesn't know about you two being active." You stood up. "Come with me."

Eren panicked. "I can't face Levi."

You slapped your hands on his cheeks and looked him in the eyes. "If you can't face Levi, then you don't deserve Miki." You let him go. "Miki is my world and she means a lot to me and Levi. You need to get on with him. If you both keep lying to him about this, it'll hurt him. The longer you take, the more hurt he'll be. We won't tell him about you two sleeping together, but we need to tell him about you two being a couple."

Mikasa hugged herself. "But he doesn't like Eren."

"He doesn't like anyone who gets close to his cousin who he's been treating as his daughter."

"He...he sees me as his daughter?"

You nodded. "Of course. You're his kid to him. He wants to protect you. He's a man, Mikasa, he's a man. So, he knows what men can be like."

She hugged herself and smiled. "I understand...I want to tell him." She turned to Eren. "We're telling him together and if you refuse, we're over. Levi is...Levi is my dad."

Eren smiled. "I want him to like me because I love you. I'm coming, I just hope he doesn't murder me."

You led them to the apartment. "I'll tame him, don't you worry!" You slipped into the room to see Levi still on the sofa looking at holidays. "Levi!"

Levi perked up and called your name. "Welcome back." He saw Eren and instantly looked angry. "Tch, what's he doing here?"

You hurried over and kissed Levi. "I love you."

He smiled. "Love you too, but why is Eren here?"

Mikasa held Eren's hand and pulled him over to you and Levi. "Mum? Dad?"

Levi welled up. "Dad?"

She smiled at Eren. "This is my boyfriend Eren. We love each other, he's respectful and if he isn't I will tell you so you can murder him."

Levi walked up to Eren. "Tch, you love her?"

Eren nodded. "Y-Yes."

"You in university?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Grades?"

Mikasa hugged Eren's arm. "He's getting great grades. He's not the top, but close. He gets in the 80s out of 100."

Levi watched the cold sweat roll down the side of Eren's face, then him take a bit nervous gulp. "That so?"

Eren shivered. "Sir, I really love her and I'm working hard to get great grades. I w-want to have a g-good future with her. She deserves the world. I want to give that to her. Oh, but if Mikasa wants to earn the money and make me stay at home, then I will! I will do anything for her."

You rubbed Levi's back. "Sweetheart?" You kissed his cheek and whispered to him. "Miki adores Eren and Eren has been nothing but respectful to her and me."

Levi frowned. "You've known about them?"

You pulled him to the bedroom. "Wait there you two." You closed the door. "Levi, she didn't tell you for a long time because she values your opinion. She thinks you're her dad, okay? She knows how much you've done for her, so having your respect and approval means the world to her. She didn't tell you because she knows you don't like any guy that gets close to her. Plus, Eren was a little shit as a kid, but he's better now. They love each other and you have to admit, my love, you can be really scary sometimes."

He sat down on the bed. "You're right."

You walked up to him and hugged his head into your boobs. "You've done so much for her and she loves you for that, but it's time to let her make her own choices now. You can't protect her forever, okay? She's an adult now. All we can do is be there for her."

He sighed. "You're right." He looked up at you and smiled softly. "What would I do without you?"

You knelt in front of him. "I love you. I deeply love you." You held his hands. "I know this is hard and Eren was a shithead, but he has changed, he means well now and he's trying so hard." You leaned up and kissed him. "Give him a chance, for her."

He sighed. "Okay, okay." He smiled softly. "For her." He walked with you out of the bedroom. "Eren? Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Eren blushed. "I would, sir, thank you."

You and Levi

You sat across Levi's back as you placed one hand on his cheek as you kissed his other. You smiled against his cheek as he hummed in happiness. "I love you."

Levi massaged the inside of your thigh. "I love you too."

You followed Levi's gaze to see he was glaring at Eren and Mikasa. You and Mikasa had convinced Levi to invite Eren on holiday, but Levi had become pissed off when he saw Eren touching Mikasa and kissing her.

You nuzzled the crook of his neck. "Stop glaring at Eren and pay attention to me."

Levi pulled his gaze from Eren and looked at you. "Hi." He smiled. "Hi, beautiful."

You kissed him. "That's better." You gasped. "We have our date tonight."

He hummed. "I'm not happy leaving them two alone."

"Levi, they have their own room."

"I know, but they have a whole night together and dinner."

You pulled back from Levi. "I know she's like a daughter to you, but she's an adult."

"Tch, I just don't want her being touched."

You pouted a little. "I get it, darling, but you're leaving me with no choice. If you're that worried about her and Eren, then you can stay with them tonight and I will go to dinner alone."

He watched you get up and pull on your beach dress. "Wait."

You stopped and looked down at him on the sunbed. "Yes?"

"I want dinner with you."

You smiled. "Great!"

He stood up. "I'll get Eren and Mikasa so come too."

You let out a long sigh. "You know what? Forget it."

Levi chased after you. "Honey! Wait! What's wrong?"

You turned to him. "Mikasa is my world too and I know you've had her longer and you two have been through a lot together, but you can't keep babying her. If you keep this up, she'll think you don't trust her and you'll push her away." You huffed. "I love you so much and she loves you, but you have to drop this. Trust her. I'll go to our booking and if you turn up, wonderful, if you decide to stay with her and watch over here then that's okay too."

Levi hummed in thought. He walked over to Mikasa and Eren. "Oi? I need a word with you both. Look, I've been on your asses for a month since I've known about you being a couple." He gulped hard. "I have been suffocating you, Mikasa and neglecting my own relationship in the process. You're not a baby anymore, you're an adult."

Mikasa hugged Levi. "Dad, mum needs you." She pulled back. "I know this is scary that I've grown up, but I'm okay, I'm safe. You don't need to do everything for me anymore. I'm okay. Focus on your girlfriend and for god's sake, ask her to marry you!"

Levi blushed. "Yeah, you're right. Okay...okay...you two? Go on a date and enjoy your night." He clenched his jaw and pointed at Eren. "Wear a condom and if you don't, I'll cut your fucking dick off and make you eat it. Got it!?"

Eren went white and nodded. "Y-Yes, sir."

Levi let out a long sigh. "Right...right...okay...enjoy your night and I love you, Mikasa."

She giggled and waved. "Love you too."

Levi ran to his room to see you'd already left. He changed into a nice white smart shirt, tight trousers and smart shoes. He grabbed the ring box and ran to the restaurant to see you sitting on the balcony looking out at the sea with a cocktail in hand.

He stood by the table and said your name. "Hi."

You looked up at Levi and smiled. "Hey. So um...I'm sorry about how I acted and spoke. I had no right and she's a daughter to you and I've slipped into your life, but she's been with you since she was 12." You welled up and rubbed your tears away. "I'm so sorry. I have no right to be here with you."

Levi yanked his chair over to next to you and sat. "Hey, hey, hey." He wiped your tears away. "Don't be sorry, okay? You were right. Mikasa backed you up as well. I need to accept she's an adult now and my time raising her is over, but I can be there for her when she needs me. I have another family that needs more of my attention." He smiled at you. "You and me. I love you with all my heart and soul." He pulled out the ring box and opened it. "You're my everything. Marry me."

You smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes Levi."

He slipped the ring on your hand before he kissed you. "You've made me so happy." He smiled and laughed a little. "We should move house and let Mikasa have her own place."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "I don't think she wants me watching over her all the time." He cleared his throat. "Plus, I umm...I want to have a family with you."

You smiled. "Me too."

Big sister

You held your baby girl, Kuchel, in your arms as you chatted to Mikasa. You couldn't believe Mikasa had finished university and was working hard in her job at a security and bodyguard company created by her. You and Levi supported her and Eren had done really well too and helped out at her company.

You and Levi had indulged in your relationship. You had a beautiful wedding, got a new place with a big garden. After time, you and Levi had a little surprise, which was your daughter. She wasn't planned, but a baby had been talked about. Kuchel was a blessing to you all and you all loved her deeply.

Mikasa was so in love with Kuchel, that she treated your daughter as if she was her sister. She would come over a lot just to see Kuchel and play with her. She was around you a lot when you were pregnant and kept hanging out. Mikasa and Levi bought a lot of baby things. Both melted when Kuchel was born and were so happy when she progressed and grew up a little.

You smiled at Mikasa as you both sat outside in the back garden. You laughed a little as your six-month-old girl threw her toy. "Oh my, you fed up with that toy?"

Mikasa picked it up. "I bought you this one."

You giggled. "She does like to throw things though." You saw her wiggle and whine. "I think she wants something to eat. I'm going to get her baby food." You lifted Kuchel and handed her over to Mikasa. "Miki? Could you look after your sister for me."

Mikasa hugged Kuchel. "Promise."

You hurried inside the house and grabbed drinks, food and things for Kuchel. You returned to both ladies and giggled at the two of them wearing matching sunglasses. "Look at you two! Two peas in a pod."

Mikasa smiled. "We're twins."

"You are." You moved her drink over before opening the food pot. You scooped up some and offered it to Kuchel. "Good girl." You giggled and kept feeding her as she wiggled her arms. "You really like this food, don't you?"

Mikasa cleaned Kuchel's face. "Messy sister." She looked at you. "Hey, mum?"

"Mm?"

She blushed a little. "Can I get more brothers and sisters?"

You put the empty pot on the side. "I would love to. I don't need to have a chat with Levi about more kids, he's already said he wants more. We'll wait for Kuchel to grow up a bit."

"Okay, I can wait."

"Wait?" You both looked at Levi. He frowned. "Wait for what?"

Mikasa smiled. "More babies."

He looked down at Kuchel with her little sunglasses on. "I would love more kids." He picked up Kuchel. "Hey, my baby." He kissed her chubby cheek. "Who's my cute little muffin? You are!" He hummed a laugh and bounced his baby on his hip. "My sweet little girl." He looked over to Mikasa. "I can't wait to have more kids."

You gave Mikasa her drink and snack. "Eat up, Miki."

She smiled at you. "Thank you." She blushed a little. "I'm glad you came into our lives."

You blushed. "Oh, bless you. I'm glad I'm here too." You held her hand and kissed it. "Love you, both of you."

Levi smiled. "We love you too. We wouldn't change any of this for the world." He laughed when Kuchel squealed with laughter and wiggled. "Kuchel agrees."

You giggled. "You three are the best."

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